I have been reluctant over the past year to discuss Brad Peterson's comments, but I will briefly, because they are directly related to what is currently transpiring with DS's investigation. He is a very experienced, well respected pedes anesthesiologist/ pediatric intensivist. I don't have any idea to what extent he was personally involved with Max's care. BP is the chief of the Rady PICU, according to their website, so it could be that he was clinically caring for Max, or it could be that as chief, he spoke with DS and JS as the administrative chief of the unit. He is without question not the ONLY doc that cared for Max once he was admitted to ICU. I'm sure many docs were involved with his care, and several docs had to be involved in the process AND decision to declare brain death. One doc is not permitted to establish brain death-- has to be at least 2, and sometimes more by policy in some institutions. There are very well established criteria for how the process is conducted.
JS is a very prominent person, so it's possible that Max's parents received an increased level of personal attention from many different administrative personnel, in addition to the clinical docs. BP has stayed completely out of the public media coverage of this case, as he should, and I'm sure, as the hospital attorneys have advised. No comments, no interviews. And this is because there is the still -open possibility that what he told the family was interpreted in such a way, and was possibly retold to others, that this then became motive for Rebecca's potential revenge murder. That is a heckuva sticky position for him, as well as the hospital to be in.
There is no record of what exactly he said to the family. Families ask many questions, and docs will do their best to explain what is going on using language that is appropriate for the understanding level of the family members, and taking their shock into consideration. I suspect (and hope) Dina and Jonah asked MANY questions, and had very LONG conversations with BP and other docs, several times a day.
At some point in the conversation, BP presumably used language that included the word "smother", or a description of anoxia/ hypoxia, and examples of causes. He is a respected professional, and accustomed to choosing his words carefully. As I have pondered this over the past year, I cannot believe any professional in his position would have volunteered a theory of nefarious smothering with the presentation that this child had, in the first day or so. What I keep returning to is the almost certain MULTIPLE conversations that occurred between docs and DS and JS explaining Max's condition. Global hypoxia would have been part of that conversation. I think it is highly likely that this was explained using comparables-- as in "we see this kind of injury in situations where the brain has been starved of oxygen, such as prolonged cardiac arrest and smothering situations".
Now, I don't claim for a single moment to know that this is how BP used the word smother, but it could have been an unfortunate choice of word on his part, IMO. Or, he may not have ever used the word smother, and his explanation was interpreted this way by DS.
I am not surprised that BP has not given any interviews or made any further statements about his use of the word "smother", if indeed he used that word in conversation with JS and DS. I certainly can believe that he was surprised at the grave situation Max was in from a fall from the staircase-- that is entirely believable. Remember that the investigation had barely begun at that point-- there were no CPD schematics of the fall, no police reports for him to look at. The first MRI that identified the high spinal cord contusion may not have been completed when he had the "hypoxia" conversation with DS/ JS. We simply don't know, and probaby won't ever know what he said, and how that was interpreted and received by JS/ DS.
Right now, we only have the mention in the LE reports that the docs were concerned about the mechanism of accident, and DS's comments about "smothering". The LE reports make sense to me-- as a consequence of the social worker report, and I attribute DS's comments about smothering as her interpretation of what he said-- heresay. Until or unless BP is willing to go on the record outside of a LE investigation (which he would be crazy to do), we will never know. He has done a very good job staying quiet and out of the media. For all we know, he may be very upset that his words were interpreted in such a way as to implicate another person. He may be upset that his words could have possibly lead to another person being killed for revenge-- particularly if the cord damage was unknown/ undocumented when he spoke them.
I think it is VERY telling that neither he, nor Rady hospital spokespeople, have had ANY public statements in support of the child abuse/ assault theory put forth by DS and her investigative team, or at any point in the last year. He clearly said SOMETHING that was interpreted as "smothering"-- at this point, it is ONLY Dina's word what he did say. Even Jonah has not said anything about this.
